Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the Religious Leaders Summit, emphasized the sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and reacted to the Assad regime. Prime Minister Erdogan compared the situation in Syria to the Karbala incident that took place 1,332 years ago and said, “We need to take an example from the prophets instead of painful events in history”.

ADNAN OKTAR: He is right, but there in Syria there is no conflict of religious sects. There is a struggle going on between Muslims and unbelievers. So there is a struggle between unbelieving communists, communists who are enemies of Allah and Muslims. There is no conflict of Alawi versusSunni. Alawis and Sunnis are brothers and sisters. There is no such thing. They believe in the same Allah and the same qiblah. There is no such conflict between them. Assad is also like a prisoner. He is a poor fellow; it is not like what people think. He is a man who has lived in fear and terror. He is a person who suffered all his life. Deaths, murders, plans of murder. Most of those around him are killers, people who kill others day and night.

Ekin TV, February 16th, 2009

Adnan Oktar: We stopped those who tried to cause corruption by discriminating between Alawis and Sunnis. They are silenced now and they cannot talk anymore. Alawis and Sunnis are brothers and sisters. Kurds and Turks are brothers and sisters. WE HAVE NO DISCRIMINATION OF RACES OR RELIGIOUS SECTS; WE WILL CARRY THIS CAUSE OF TURKISH ISLAMIC UNION RIGHT TO THE END HAND IN HAND, STRONGLY, LIKE CEMENT, INSHA’ALLAH. This is destiny and no one can stop this.

Adana CRT TV, September 30th, 2008

Adnan Oktar:RIGHTIST-LEFTIST, ALAWI, KURDISH, LAZ, CIRCASSIAN, SUNNI, it does not matter, we are all brothers and sisters and we are all servants of Allah. Allah showed us all a path and we will respect everyone’s opinion, but unity and solidarity are essential.

Albaghdadi TV, April 30th, 2008

Adnan Oktar: I am all for preaching and practicing religion and Islam within a secular system, and I think that everyone would find peace in that because in any society there are unbelievers, there are Jews and there are Christians. They also have rights. They are also first -class citizens and there are also different sects. For example, there are Alawis and Jaffaris and they are all our brothers. We feel deep compassion for all of them and we would never wish any harm to them. I consider Alawis and Jaffaris as equals and brothers. They are the people of the Book as described in the Qur'an. But they are our brothers, sisters and friends in the Qur'an. They also have rights. We have to live in friendship and love with them.

November 19th, 2012, Vatan Newspaper

Prime Minister Erdogan, who unveiled the Eigth Eurasia Islamic Council held by the Directorate of Religious Affairs at the Hilton Hotel, also touched upon the discussions on religious sects in Syria. The Prime Minister said, “We need to love one another for Allah, not for any religious sect. We have to achieve this. We see that this is still posing a great danger in Syria. The Assad regime is trying to ascribe a sectarian reason to this struggle in order to legitimize this bloody violence against the Syrian people who are putting forth an honorable struggle”.

Erdogan said that they know well about the disasters and pain sectarianism has caused in the region throughout history and added, “We cannot shadow Islam with taboos like Sunnism and Shiism. Islam must be the only determinant for us; not religious sects. We cannot fight with one another by turning sects into taboos. Now the direction in Syria has become like that and this lies behind the violence in Syria. We should not fall into this corruption. We must love one another for Allah, not for sects”.

Prime Minister Erdogan said that a dangerous game is being played in Syria and said, “What is going on in Syria today is not a conflict between sects but the sad story of the oppression exercised by the Ba'ath regime against its own people in order to maintain its hold on power . At this point, we all have important duties and responsibilities in the struggle against those who understand and explain the developments in the Middle East exclusively in terms of sectarian conflict and religious struggle. We need to strive to eliminate efforts to separate people on the basis of religion and sects.”